That's from Alderman Steve Olson, commenting on our State Senator's aide's blog entry regarding Franklin resident and blogger Fred Keller. That entry, labeling Keller as a liar and in later comments, a closet liberal (???), has been disproved by none other than Keller himself, along with another resident who wrote on our State Senator's blog.
What's funny about Olson's comment is that I don't think it's very difficult to figure out that half the time it's none other than Steve Olson himself that feeds our aide information from City Hall, which then turns into political discourse. Seeing Olson try and warp this into a 180 making him look like some kind-of saint didn't please me very much, given the background and experience with my alderman.
This is the same guy that led barrage upon barrage of personal, negative, and smearing attacks against former alderman Don Dorsan back in 2004 to replace Dorsan as the alderman for the 1st District. To put things in perspective, Olson carried his aldermanic campaign so nasty that when the Kosovich/Taylor election in 2008 was happening, it spooked some people (including myself) because it was so friendly! Olson sent out so much negative material and rallied local media support against then-incumbent Don Dorsan that both still have issues with each other to this day...which is turning on 5 years now.
This is the same guy who was what I'd consider an integral part of the former political action group Franklin Citizens for Responsible Leadership, who knocked off several aldermen including Dorsan and had quite the past with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. I'm sure if I had a chance to sit down with Basil Ryan he'd be real excited to spill some of those beans on the clique Olson was part of. Don't believe me? Read the quote from the Journal Sentinel (emphasis mine):
Franklin Citizens for Responsible Leadership emerged in March 2003, saying it intended to recall Ryan and anyone else members saw as blocking the city's economic development efforts. Over the next year, the group replaced four of the six sitting aldermen with one of its founding members - Ald. Steve Olson - and three others sympathetic to its agenda. Olson later distanced himself from the group.
The group made what turned out to be false or exaggerated claims against opponents in fliers, claiming in one case that the candidate knew a sex-offender home was being planned for Franklin and that the candidate did nothing to fight a landfill expansion whose height would "exceed the Empire State Building."
"It was 'take the office at all costs.' That was the tactic they used," said former Ald. Don Dorsan, who lost to Olson and complained to the district attorney's office that the group had knowingly distributed false information about him.
Dorsan said the group's actions had discouraged others from running.
"You'd need a lot of money to fight this group," said Dorsan, who chairs the city's Environmental Commission. "The average guy who wants to be in office for all the right reasons doesn't have those kinds of resources."
Sorry, Alderman Olson, but I'll never buy your political tactics and schemes. If we took the quote that you put up on your press secretary's blog seriously, then you'd most likely be the start of a lot of that "vendetta" and "personal destruction" you speak of in Franklin politics. If some friends of mine were to speak their minds to you, I'm sure they'd say something along the lines of karma being a you-know-what.
